The Hero Princess
by playadeslosers
Summary: The wandering princess, Zoey, tries to find adventure in her life. She winds up with more adventure than she bargained for, and someone that desperately needs her help.
1. Chapter 1

It was a terrifying sight. Only that morning had she been saving tiny kittens from tall trees and signing legislature. Only that afternoon had she been having cake with visiting royalty. And now it was night, and she was terrified. She had never known that adventuring was so scary. She hadn't realized how dangerous travelling alone at night really felt. She hadn't encountered anything that meant her harm yet, but everything seemed so much darker in nature at night. Trees that she embroidered underneath during the day seemed like they could reach out and steal her away now.

Zoey hugged to the side of Lucille, her prized goat. Big enough to ride or fly, but she was walking the blue-ribbon beauty by a braided rope around her neck. The bleats echoed into the night, and Zoey didn't know if she should be scared that some burglar or thug might hear them and jump from the shadows. Though, noise other than her own crunching footsteps kind of calmed her down. She reached up and brushed stray red hairs out of her eyes, tucking them behind the large lavender rose positioned at her ear. She usually had someone that did her hair for her, but not on the road.

Wait, _was_ there a road? She spun around quickly, staring at the ground. Though it was very dark outside, she was still able to make out the lack of any path - paved or otherwise. Not even a dirt trail could be seen! Her heart started pounding quickly, and she started walking in a straight line. She would have to find some sort of road if she kept walking, right? Flying was too dangerous at night with no visible landmarks. Just trees and grass, everywhere.

Her feet started to give out after close to an hour; at least, she thought that it had been an hour. It felt like ten. She had been getting goat hair on her dress from leaning on Lucille, and eventually gave up on being "tough". She stopped and pulled herself onto the goat's back, minding the wings carefully. Riding sidesaddle was a routine practice for royalty, and it was what she was most used to when riding her goats. However, familiar did not mean comfortable, and she swung her legs on either side of the thick animal, continuing with her trek through the forest. If it was possible to get darker than "darkest night blue", as her mother had always put it, that's the color she would have described the woods as. It was starting to not only unnerve her, but she was getting more spooked as time went on.

She had been drifting into sleep for a few moments until her noble steed stopped in her tracks, jolting Zoey awake. "Nnh...huh?" She turned her head up towards the sky, and her red-tinted lips popped open. In front of her was a beautiful ivory tower, spiraling up into the sky. She had heard stories of princesses locked up in towers that touched the sky as a child, but it was never supposed to be taken seriously! Just stories. But if anybody needed to be locked up, this was the tower to do it in. She circled the lowest level, and found that there were no windows and no doors. It was a terrifying thought. Someone (or some_thing_) could be up there, with no way out! She had to help! "Come on, Lucy, we have to help!" She scooted up, grabbing onto Lucille's dark horns as she stretched out her bat-like wings and flapped to ascend into the sky. Zoey directed the flight in a constantly circle around the tower, constantly searching for some sort of upper window. There had to be some way for somebody inside to get air, after all.

After a minute or two of flying, she spotted a flickering light just above her. "Bingo!" She grinned, glad that her attempt wasn't in vain. She neared the window and was able to deduce that someone wasn't manually flicking lights, but that it was an outside force acting upon electrical energy. She'd seen it happen once in her classes, and gotten shocked - literally! Electricity wasn't a common thing around her kingdom, other than tiny jars of bottled lightning that the court sorcerers used for spells. So seeing things flashing so erratically startled her. Someone must really be in danger!

"N-No! I don't want this! _Stop!_"

The protests were decidedly male, but that didn't make her heart freeze any less. In fact, it almost made her more scared. Most of the males in her life were big and strong, like her Papa and the knights that protected her on outings. What could scare someone like them? She gulped and approached the window at last, peering inside. Other than the flashes of light that nearly blinded her, she didn't see much else in the small, round room. A messy desk with lots of notes pinned all over it, along with similar notes stuck to the circular wall. Whoever was living there must have been very forgetful. She hopped from the back of her ride to the windowsill, landing as gracefully as possible. Which wasn't very easy when you only got short bursts of being able to see and were jumping from the back of a flying goat! She scrambled inside and looked around, as the loud whines had stopped.

"G-Get out!" She whipped around to the origin of the sound, eyes widening slightly. She had to take a few cautious steps towards the bookshelf pressed against the wall, but she saw who was demanding she leave. He looked to be about her age, and his clothes looked quite quality. Though, they were ragged and torn in several places, and stained with something she couldn't recognize. Blood, maybe? Some of the potions whose jars littered the floor by the bed? It could be anything. His hands were pushed deep into his hair, and it seemed as if he was trying to pull it out. Maybe he had a headache...she had some herbs in her satchel that could help...

"I...I saw the lights from the window," She explained quickly, trying to sound less like an intruder and more like a concerned stranger. "I didn't mean to just barge in; I'm very sorry!"

Her words bounced off of his ears, or so it seemed. Did he not hear anything she said? He was still crying and gritting his teeth. "G-Get out... Get out of my head!" So he wasn't talking to her? If not her, then whom? He kept hissing and growling "get outs" over and over, as the nervous princess tried to think of what to do. She didn't have much time, as the boy started coughing and sputtering soon after. His posture changed from that of curled into himself to all-fours on the floor. It was almost like he was going to vomit or something! The noises coming from his mouth scared her, as she had never heard anything so awful in all of her sheltered life. It was like there was something stuck in his lungs, and he was wheezing and choking it out slowly. Without hesitation, she moved to his side and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. Not a good idea; he wasn't in his right mind, and pushed her backwards so hard that she fell onto the seat of her dress with a sharp squeal. She quickly moved backwards across the room until her back pressed against the wall. She had once visited a hospital and seen a man that had gone mad, but even that was less scary than this! "I'm sorry!" She apologized immediately, not knowing what he'd done wrong

The boy's voice almost seemed split when he screamed. As if it wasn't just him screaming. The flashing of the lights stopped altogether when he screamed then, and Zoey felt more safe with steady visibility. Her comfort was misplaced, because something was...trying to get out of him. Beneath the fitted clothes he wore, Zoey could see his skin moving on its own. Tiny, rolling bumps working their way from his feet up. His voice (voices?) was now strangled, as if something was choking him. An invisible rope around his neck that pulled him up to his knees, his head lolling backwards. Only gasps and wheezes escaped his throat for a moment until the full body convulsions started. His back arched in a way she didn't think a human's should, and the warbled pleads to just be left alone repeated. The princess didn't know why, but she felt like they weren't directed at her. She heard cracking sounds from his spine as he moved in very unnatural ways. But nothing was more terrifying than what came next.

Thick, black smoke started pouring from his mouth and nose. He fell back onto the floor again, twitching and screeching that horrible double-voice at someone that wasn't even there. The smoke was so thick it almost seemed like a liquid, pouring into the air and hanging there. It didn't disperse out of the window; she had a suspicion that even if she tried to blow it away, it would stay in the air. It didn't smell like normal smoke either...it smelled dark and evil. It wasn't noticeable, but Zoey had also started to whisper "please stop" under her breath.

It was almost like he was choking on the exhalations, unable to take a breath in. It made his noises sound as if his lungs were full of water or blood or something else altogether. Wheezing and short and very liquid. Then, he seemed to take an actual breath inwards, and he looked in her general direction. She hadn't known if he recognized someone else in the room, but her confusion was set straight with his next cry: "Help me."

Without even thinking, she stood back up and rushed back over to his side. The smoke burned her nose, making her choke and cough (though much less than he was). She swatted it away out of instinct, but it didn't work. Not that it mattered, because her main focus was on him. She dropped to her knees and tried to figure out what to do. "Do you have medicine?" She asked in a panic, only to quickly run out of ideas when he twitched his head "no". His eyes started rolling back in his head, and the multiple screams died down to quick mutterings.

"Help me, help me, help me, help me."

Zoey had no idea what to do! She wasn't a nursemaid, and she had never needed to take care of anybody else like this before! Was it some sort of possession, as told of by the church? She didn't know many prayers, but did remember some paintings she had seen. As quickly as she could with his tightened muscles, she crossed his arms over his chest and brought his head into her lap. "Please be okay," She whispered, just noticing that she had been crying. Since when, there was no telling. She just tried doing all of the things that comforted her when she was sick. She gently pet his hair, rubbed circles into his chest. The smoke was right in her face now, but she couldn't just leave him like this. "You're going to be alright," She told him, her voice as steady as she could keep it given the situation.

His coughing died down, but the smoke still trailed from his mouth. She couldn't keep him over here, she decided, and pulled one of his tense arms around her shoulder as she stood up. A quick glance around the room again, and she half-dragged him over to the bed, being as careful as possible lying him down. No stool around, so she knelt by the bedside and continued to comfort him. The spiky-haired boy curled up on his side towards her, and she was able to see dark circles under his eyes. Did this happen to him every night? He looked so tired. And he was all alone! She felt so bad for him, so she pulled the blankets over his trembling body, fluffing the pillow as much as she could without moving his head. He still looked so sad-looking, even after the smoke started to clear. She took the light purple rose from her hair and placed it next to him, hoping that he might be able to smell it in his sleep, instead of the toxic fumes from before.

"I can't just leave him..." She mumbled to herself, but there wasn't any other bed around. She crossed to the window and called her goat inside. Large enough to ride, small enough to fit without breaking anything. Oh, she hoped he wouldn't mind. His condition was just so worrisome! She set up camp next to his bed, leaning against the warm, fluffy body of her goat. She stayed awake as long as she could, wiping the tears from his eyes and the blood from his bitten, chapped lips. "You're going to be okay..." She whispered again, furrowing her eyebrows. "I'll make sure of it."


	2. Chapter 2

Trying to sleep was incredibly difficult. No sleep the young princess managed to get was any good, being packed with swirling nightmares about the boy choking out darkness. Every time she woke up, Zoey had felt very useless. She was entirely unable to help him, no matter how much she wanted to. She wasn't taught of things like this; none of her talents prepared her for taking care of someone in this situation! She couldn't sew this problem away, and using archery definitely wasn't the right way to go about it.

All she could do was what the court nurses did whenever she felt sick; so Zoey rolled up her sleeves and headed over to the small bathroom area of the room. It was very dark with no candles lit and no more jarred lightning, and she didn't want to wake the disturbed boy's sleep. He needed all the rest he could get. So she had to grope around the sink and shelves until her hands touched cloth. After determining that it wasn't soaked in some unseen yucky something (lots of jars had broken around the room, after all), she blindly wandered back over to her goat, which she used as sort of a safe zone. Nothing else in the room was as big and hairy as Lucille, after all.

Then, for the next two hours, she had knelt by this troubled boy's bedside and wiped the sweat from his brow. It was as if he was running a fever, but his face felt cold and clammy. His sleep seemed even worse than hers, as if his entire body was a nightmare. In fits, he would suddenly toss and turn while muttering things too garbled or too quiet for her to hear. She couldn't see his face very well, but was sure that it would make her heart ache for him.

However, it was getting late. She tried to stay awake and tend to him for as long as she could, but her eyes were closed even before her forehead hit the side of his mattress.

The sun rose early, and so did the young Prince. Another restless night, another worrisome day, another giant goat in his room.

Another giant goat in his room? This, certainly, wasn't normal. He shot up in bed, scrambling backwards against the wall. When he did this, he noticed a cold wet washcloth fall off of his forehead. His eyes shot around the room he lived in, having to squint to see through the early morning sunlight. His breath caught in his throat after he caught sight of a girl with red hair. And, more importantly, how she was slumped over his bed. Oh no, oh no, oh no! Had he done something – had he hurt someone?

The giant sleeping goat no longer his focus, he slid off of his bed and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking gently. Then he noticed how her hair was messy, and she was…snoring? Of course, she was just asleep! Her eyes drifted open for a moment after she mumbled, "Just for another five…minutes…"

"Hello, miss? Miss, please wake up. I-I think you're lost."

"I'm awake…I've been awake forever. M'not late for archery lessons…wide awake." Okay, so she obviously thought she was somewhere else.

Mike rested her back against the bed, because all of these new things were getting to him. He could feel his chest bubbling from the inside, and he blindly stumbled towards his shelves to light a soothing candle. Not only would it make him focus, but the light would let him see. Let him have a little more control. He grabbed around for a match, then struck and lit it in one, fluid motion. Soft light made the room more comfortable, and he gingerly carried the now-lit candle over to where this red-headed stranger was still fast asleep against his bedframe.

How to wake someone up in a nice way? That was the question at hand. He couldn't try shaking her again, because she might get scared. When he was younger, he had always enjoyed being awoken with breakfast, but he didn't know what she liked. Was he really trying to be so polite to a stranger that had barged into his highest room in his tallest tower? It was breaking and entering! Yet…maybe she was lost and scared. Or maybe she ran away from her home.

With no other option, Mike knelt down next to her and held the candle up near their faces. "Miss," He said, his voice much more stern than before. "Miss, you need to wake up right now." His voice wasn't a shout, but it was loud enough for this (very pretty) girl's eyelids to flutter open. And as soon as they did, she wheeled backwards and flopped onto her back on the floor.

"A-Ah!" Where _was_ she? She sat up and pulled her skirt back over her knees, staring at this strange boy with wide brown eyes. It took her a few moments, but then she remembered the previous night. The terrifying sight she'd witnessed, how worried she was about this very sick boy. However, he seemed to be perfectly fine right now. She'd never seen anything like it! Retching up smoke one night, and looking nothing but a little tired the next morning? It was strange, to say the least. "I…I'm Princess Zoey. You know, the princess of this nation?" She was cautious in her introduction, seeing as most people already knew her and immediately dropped to their knees in her presence. It was really hard to make friends when everybody was worried about offending you, after all.

As soon as she said "princess", this boy scooted backwards across the floor with the candle, almost retreating. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He almost seemed to be embarrassed to speak, but then said, "I'm afraid I've never heard of you. I've been locked in this tower for years."

That was unexpected. _Years?_ How did he get food? It had been dark when she scaled the tower with Lucille; maybe there was a pulley system? Zoey rubbed the back of her neck, trying to think of something to say.

"I'm sorry about that," Her voice was a little louder than a whisper, "What's your name? I mean – if you want to tell me. It's okay if you don't want to." Oh, gosh, was she nervous? She always rambled when she got nervous, after all.

"It's Mike. P…_Prince_ Michael, actually. Or, at least, it _used_ to be Prince." The scrawny boy was sure that the throne of his nation now belonged to someone else. Being locked up for years without any word was probably enough to declare the kingdom relinquished.

"Okay, Mike. Well, how about we leave? My goat flies; she can take us back to my home kingdom. I think you might need to see a man of medicine –"

She was cut off by the former prince standing quickly and pacing to the other side of the room, rubbing one side of his head. He looked distraught, and Zoey was very worried that she had said something wrong. She hadn't wanted to bring up the previous night for fear of offending him, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to say nothing! He was sick.

In the rising light of day, she got a much better look at him – or rather, his arms. Bruises all up and down them, and a pang of sadness shot through her heart. Who could hurt someone like that? By all accounts, he seemed so gentle and nice!

"I can't leave."

"Is it because you're afraid of flying? Because if you close your eyes it's –"

"I can't leave because I locked _myself_ in here. I need to stay."


End file.
